Postcards From Plitvice

I was reluctant to post on this site again but I suppose it’s a way of bringing these places to more people. Anyone with an aversion to colour should probably look away. Somewhere I had wanted to visit for some time, the famous Plitvice Lakes in Croatia were awash with vibrant autumnal hues reflected in crystal clear emerald waters. My friend and fellow photographer, Parrish, and myself both had the idea to plan and execute this excursion and happily it proceeded flawlessly.

The Hidden View, which, thanks to Parrish, we found.

The Unesco site is comprised of a series of upper lakes connected to lower lakes through a succession of streams and waterfalls, no less than 90 all told.

I’m not sure what it is about waterfalls that draw me to them so much. I have seen some of the largest and most beautiful that the planet has to offer, in places such as South America, Iceland, Canada and even Wales (still my favourite). Perhaps it’s the power of the flow or the sound of the rush, or perhaps it’s the simple beauty of seeing nature pour its water freely over an edge.

Many of the waterfalls in Plitvice are, of course, small trickling affairs while others are have a more interesting aesthetic. The largest, known as The Big Slap, isn’t really that large at all and is merely a trap for tourists wishing to capture it as yet another digital friend on their selfie sticks (the number of times I’ve had to beat someone over the head with a stick that got in my way; I really should be incarcerated by now).

But the entire national park is a pleasure in which to roam for a couple of days hiking through its woods or clapping ones boots along its many boardwalks. While overcast skies are probably better for accentuating seasonal colours and limiting blown highlights, the glaring sun, solitary in a cloudless blue sky, reached its fingers of light through the canopy above us and touched the leaves with radiant glows of red, yellow and orange. As we advanced along, tanned and ochre leaves pirouetted down around us, denuding their host branches to leave a ceiling of bare and black dendritic webs.

Every corner turned would bring a new waterfall or stream, the view obscured by tall yellow reeds or wistful orange spots. As they gurgled into the waiting lakes lush highlights of crimson and gold would interrupt the green foliage at the banks and become twinned by the mirror of the still water beneath. Our steps crunched along the caramel carpet of leaves under us, stitched together with patches of rose and amber.

Surprisingly, around water, we saw very little wildlife but for the abundant fish and ducks. Fearless coal tits and nuthatches would flutter around us hoping for a morsel and the island in the middle of the main lower lake hosted a few cormorants.

Branches and tree trunks often crowded our views of the waterfalls but in retrospect this added an authenticity to the unspoiled environment.

Gear wise you’ll simply have to read one of the other articles on this site to satisfy your lust. I used the usual trifecta of my head, eyes and legs, occasionally using a tripod until I realised that the image stabilisation was good enough to shoot sharp, one-second exposures handheld. Keeping the tripod folded in my bag also meant it wasn’t in anyone’s way as they shuffled past.

I realise that my usual postcard style processing won’t be to most people’s tastes but happily I’ve never been beholden to the opinions of Internet strangers and the important thing is that they please me. Listening to Paul Engemann’s ‘Push It To The Limit’ with saturated neon lights flashing around me during my editing probably had some effect.

En route to Plitvice Parrish and I stopped at Rastoke, a picturesque little town also populated by a series of impressive waterfalls flowing into a long canyon. It proved a terrific appetiser for our main course.

Well, that’s a brief taster of this little journey. We finished our trip in Zagreb, a small but bustling city of trams and colourful cobbled streets. The Croatian people were generally helpful and friendly and we enjoyed driving through the country’s vivid, autumnal landscape. I thank Parrish for his excellent company and knowledge, and that’s two broken polarising filters that I now owe him; please don’t lend me anything else.

As usual this article was reproduced from my blog where you can see more images. I’m off to my next destination. Bye.

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About Alpha Whiskey

Alpha Whiskey has pursued his enjoyment of photography both at home in the UK and overseas, capturing scenic views from Alaska to Bulgaria, from Iceland to California. He has pointed his camera and trained his eye at almost every subject, from wildlife to architecture, from portraits to landscapes, from the Red Bull X-Fighters to the Northern Lights. His photographs have been published on the covers of national publications and within media for the National Trust. His blog is a growing library of images from his travels, excursions, and his photowalks with friends, and he hopes that by sharing them he can encourage others to worry less about gear and simply go out and shoot.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Wow, what a place! Great job Sharif for capturing such beautiful images of Plitvice. A friend of mine recently visited Croatia – he was in awe of the beauty! It is on my bucket list of places that I want to visit. Stunning!

First, thanks a lot for presenting us this beautiful website ! And thanks @Alpha Whiskey for bringing these photos, it re-ignited my sweet memories of Croatia.

Though I am from India, I have been to Plitvice 3-times including one night-stay (probably more than any average Croatian does :) ) .. It is that beautiful. I have been there once in winter and twice in summer and still have a desire to visit in Autumn … I am another person still in awe of that place, though almost 1.5 year is over I seen it last time.

I eagerly wait for the day to see your trip outcome in this page. And quite surely it will be an outstanding one … Please be there !!!

Some nice photo’s, but it looks like most of them are photo shopped in some way is this true, if they are then I ask why, because what you are looking at colors, water falls etc don’t really exist, I prefer natural the real thing anyone can photo shop.

The long exposure effects are what they are, long exposures! But I think you get the photoshop effect impression because of the highly prominent Orton effect (sort of un-natural glow). It has been used and over used in the industry and is, in my opinion, detrimental to the pictures. Now each one to their own, I know people who love that stuff and it’s perfectly fine. One has to recognise that the author went to a really nice location and took time to think of his compositions in his landscape images.

Sharif, what stunning photos! I immensely enjoyed your artistic vision and narrative. What a treasure you have shared with us! Some day, I’d love to make a promenade through this park – with or without a camera. : )

Sharif, Another thoroughly enjoyable post, with beautiful photos. Great compositions, awesome colors, and a well written, interesting post. I for one, look forward to your “Postcard” posts, as they are probably the only way I will get to see and enjoy the places you have traveled to and photographed. Don’t stop posting here on PL because of the stupid, negative, and childish comments of others. That is simply playing into the hand of the troll’s that make such comments… it’s what they want to happen because they don’t get enough attention themselves.

Beautiful work AW. Personally I don’t care what camera/lens you used or what you did in post or what software you used. There are plenty of other sites to read about that stuff. Very few photo web sites will show just the final result. That’s what’s really important. I wanna see the baby! I don’t really want to hear about the labor pains… But I digress. My only objection, and it’s a minor one, is the placement of a few of your watermarks. A couple of the pics have it placed in a blank area of sky, top center of the image. My eyes were drawn to it, not the picture. Just me, but other than that I love all of them.

I enjoyed your photos here as I have the others you have shared in the past. As to trolls, I have noticed that they never offer samples of their work to show their excellence in composition, execution, or vision; just negative comments without evidence that backs up their criticism. Hard to ignore nasty comments, but there may be some pleasure in knowing you can produce when they can’t.

There are a couple of really stunning compositions. I love the S of trees going down to the lake, and your last waterfall, backlighted with this colorful sky is hypnotic! I enjoy your ironic writing, too bad it get mingled with some snarky comments to trolls, it breaks your flow.

I didn’t understand your opening sentence when first I read it. Now I do… I enjoyed your photos. I might, or might not try a different approach myself, but on this occasion you are the one telling the story and what a story! I’m really grateful to have been shown thes pictures. What an amazing location One question, if I may – on no. 8 the sky is bisected by a vertical white line. What is that? I’m sure I’m not going to be the only one to say Please Don’t Stop!

First fantastic journal entry, as always. Always wanted to visit this region.

These photo essay’s (along with the educational entries) are the reason I continue to visit this site. The personality in the posts and casual attitude towards the nitpicking details are so refreshing. The quality is in the journey and the eye of the photographer.

AlphaWhiskey, please keep these posts coming. They help keep the technical side of photography in check.

What a great collections of beautiful photos and story board. I absolutely love your photos and their post processing- awesome colours….. yeah, please completely ignore other non-helpful opinions and please continue to post on this wonderful website. I always enjoy your articles!

Great pics of a beautiful place. I went late this summer and took quite a few shots of the exact same locations as you. Yours came out a lot better though. Being at the tail end of tourist season, it was maddeningly crowded. I couldn’t have used a tripod if I wanted to, and my image stabilization wasn’t quite as up to the task as yours seems to have been. Still worth it if only for the memories. I heard from our guide that it’s unreal in the winter and you can spend the whole day hiking in the snow without seeing another person. Probably worth another trek out just for that.

Comment Policy: Although our team at Photography Life encourages all readers to actively participate in discussions, we reserve the right to delete / modify any content that does not comply with our Code of Conduct, or do not meet the high editorial standards of the published material.

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